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CLEVELAND 



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IN A 



NUTSHELL 



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By ELROY M. AVB&Y? t> £ 



(Not Published.) 



Cleveland, O., 

1893 







ffl EXC H ANQC 



HISTORICAL. 



THE charter granted to the governor and company ot 
Connecticut by Charles II., king of England, in 1662, 
conveyed a belt of land reaching from the Massachu- 
setts line to Long Island Sound and extending westward 
from Narragansett Bay "to the South Sea on the west part 
with the islands thereunto adjoining." This charter consoli- 
dated the Connecticut and New Haven plantations, jumped 
half the claim of Rhode Island, and ignored the existence of 
the Dutch in the valley of the Hudson River But it was 
not in good form for kings in those days to be accurate in 
the matter of the title deeds they gave. In fact, their dis- 
regard of geography and equity was phenomenal; the most 
imaginative man alive could not bound his estates in Spain 
with greater disregard of Spanish geography and Spanish 
law. The grants overlapped alarmingly and bred conflicts 
that gave no end of trouble to American colonists and of 
exasperation to American historians. Subsequent grants 
to the Duke of York and William Penn cut sorry gashes in 
the Puritan domain. The northern boundary of Connecticut 
is the parallel of 42 2' ; the western boundary happens to 
fall at the seashore on the forty-first parallel of north latitude. 
At the close of the war of independence, Connecticut still 
upheld her claim to the western tenitory lying between the 
parallels of 41 and of 42 1' and extending from Pennsyl- 
vania to the Mississippi. When, a few years later, the claim- 
ant states of the old confederation ceded their western lands 
to the general government, Connecticut excluded from the 
release the territory in the northeastern part of the Ohio of 
to-day, bounded on the north by the international line, on 
the east by Pennsylvania, on the south by the forty-first 
parallel and on the west by a line parallel to the western 
boundary of Pennsylvania and a hundred and twenty miles 
from it. Connecticut was said "to reserve" this territory, 
and the popular expression, "The Connecticut Western Re- 
serve," soon worked its way into legal and historical docu- 
ments. 

The Connecticut cession was made in September, 1786. 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL. 



In May, 1792, the general assembly set apart five hundred 
thousand acres lying across the western end of the Reserve 
and bounded on the north by Lake Brie for the benefit of her 
citizens who had suffered losses by British incursions in the 
Revolution. In Connecticut history, these lands are known 
as "The Sufferer's Lands;" in Ohio history, as "The Fire 
Lands." In May, 1795, the general assembly offered for sale 
the remaining part of its western lands and devoted the pro- 
ceeds thereof, as a perpetual fund, the interest of which 
should be appropriated for the support of schools. The Con- 
necticut school fund, which now amounts to more than two 
million dollars, consists wholly of proceeds of the sale, of 
these western lands and of the capitalized interest thereon. 
In the following September (1795), a legislative committee 
sold these lands to the Connecticut Land Co., which was 
organized for the purpose of the purchase. This company 
was not incorporated; it was simply a "syndicate" of land 
speculators. The price agreed upon was $1, 200,000; the sale 
was made on credit, the purchasers giving their bonds with 
personal security, and subsequently supplementing them by 
mortgages on the lands. The Reserve was sold without sur- 
vey or measurement. The committee made as many deeds 
as there were purchasers and each deed granted all right, 
title and interest, juridical and territorial, to as many twelve- 
hundred-thousandths of the land as the number of dollars 
that the purchaser had agreed to pay. Bach purchaser was a 
tenant in common of the whole territory. Such was the 
largest sale of Ohio lands ever made. As a specula- 
tion, the purchase proved unfortunate; the survey showed 
that instead of buying four million acres as was supposed, the 
shareholders had bought not more than three million; instead 
of paying thirty cents per acre, they had paid more than 
forty. The expenses of the survey were heavier than had 
been anticipated and a jurisdictional question caused much 
vexation and pecuniary loss. "For a state to alienate the 
jurisdiction of half its territory to a company of land specu- 
lators that never rose to the dignity of a body corporate and 
poHtic was certainly a remarkable proceeding." 

In the spring of 1796, the directors of the company sent 
out a surveying party ( fifty persons, all told) under the com- 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL. 



rnand of General Moses Cleaveland of Windham county, Con- 
necticut. He whose name now our city bears was commissioned 
to superintend " the agents and men sent to survey and make 
locations on said land, and to enter into friendly negotiations 
with the natives who are on said land or contiguous thereto 
and mav have any pretended claim to the same," and was 
" fully authorized to act and transact the above business in as. 
full a manner as we ourselves could do." 

At Buffalo, the superintendent bought the Indian claim to 
the lands east of the Cuyahoga River for five hundred pounds. 
( New York currency in trade,) two beef cattle and a hundred 
gallons of whiskey. On the fourth of July, having deter- 
mined the point where the dividing line between Pennsylvania 
and their "Reserve " struck Lake Erie, the party celebrated 
the twentieth anniversary of American independence at the 
mouth of Conneaut Creek. The place was christened the 
Port of Independence. One of the toasts of the day, drunk 
in "several pails of grog," "May these sons and daughters 
multiply in sixteen years sixteen times fifty," was more than 
made good. Another toast, ' ' The State of New Connecticut, " 
hinted at a notion on the part of the proprietors that they 
might organize a state as William Penn had done, and govern 
it from Hartford as the Council of Plymouth had governed 
New England from old England. If such notions actually 
existed, the plans all went awry; "the United States objected 
to this mode of setting up states." 

On the twenty-second of July, 1796, General Cleaveland and 
a few of his party arrived at the mouth of Cuyahoga River. 
Since that day there have been white men on the site of the city 
which, with a more compact orthography, bears the name of 
the Puritan Moses who had the faith, the courage and the 
wisdom to lead the first colony into the Western Reserve, 
and there to build this mighty, ever-growing monument to 
his memory. Arma virumque cano. 

The site of the city was chosen after due deliberation, and 
a survey was then made of the plateau at the junction of the 
river and the lake Streets were laid out through the forest, 
a public square was set off, and 220 two-acre lots were marked 
and numbered. Certain of these lots were reserved for public 
use and the rest put up for sale at $50 each, with a condition 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL. 



of immediate settlement. In December, the surveyors 
returned to the East, leaving but three white persons in the 
embryo Cleveland, Mr. and Mrs. Stiles and the Edward Paine 
who subsequently became the founder of Painesville, Ohio. 
In the spring of 1797, other settlers came and the surveyors 
returned. By August, Central street (now Euclid avenue), 
North street (now St. Clair street), and South street (now 
Woodland avenue), were accurately determined. In 1798, the 
malaria came with virulence and several families removed to 
the more healthful ridge (Woodland Hills) near Newburgh. 
"Their removal reduced the population of Cleveland to two 
families, those of Carter and Spafford. The major and the 
ex-surveyor kept tavern, dickered with the Indians and culti- 
vated the soil of their city lots." In 1799, a grist mill was 
built at Newburgh, the first on the Reserve, and the rivalry 
between Newburgh and Cleveland was fairly begun. 

By 1800, there were twenty or thirty settlements on the 
Reserve with a total population of about 1,300. But there was 
no government ; there were no laws or records ; no magistrates 
or police. The people were orderly and fully competent to 
govern themselves ; and yet, in those three or four years, the 
need of civil institutions began to be severely felt. In 1788, 
General Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest 
Territory, by proclamation, had established Washington 
County, including all of the present state east of a meridian 
line drawn from the mouth of the Cuyahoga to the Ohio 
River. In 1796, he included the Reserve in Wayne County, 
the seat of which was Detroit. In 1797, he included the 
eastern part in Jefferson County. It is not certain whether 
the relation of the Western Reserve to the Northwest Terri- 
tory was considered at the time of enacting the immortal 
ordinance of 1787, which made no distinction between ceded 
and unceded lands, but St. Clair's attempt to exercise juris- 
diction emphasized the doubt as to the sufficiency of the 
original Connecticut claim, and, consequently, to the validity 
of the title deeds to the soil itself. The lands ceded and the 
lands reserved by Connecticut had been claimed by New 
York and Virginia, and the clouded title was understood at 
the time of the purchase by the Connecticut Land Company. 
Connecticut had held the soil by the same title that she had 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHEEE- 



held jurisdiction, and both had been quit-claimed by the state 
to the syndicate. If the jurisdiction was in the United 
States, the ownership of the soil was there too. St. Clair's 
claim to jurisdiction was a menace to the title by which the 
settlers held their lands. Therefore, they, with great una- 
nimity, denied the territorial jurisdiction and simply laughed 
when the Jefferson county authorities sent an agent to inquire 
into the matter of taxation. The agent " returned to Steu- 
benville, no richer and no wiser than he came." 

Naturally enough, men desiring western lands hesitated 
about buying in a district where there was no government 
and where the titles to the lands were clouded, and the men 
who owned the lands hesitated to sell when payments could 
not be enforced. Connecticut was indifferent to the contro- 
versy and even refused to assert her jurisdiction when the 
land company importuned her to do so. The settlers and the 
shareholders called for help both from the state assembly 
and from congress. In February, 1800, the national house of 
representatives appointed a committee, with John Marshall 
as chairman, to take into consideration the acceptance of 
jurisdiction. The report of the committee stated the dilemma 
of the company in a single sentence: ' ' As the purchasers of 
the land commonly called the Connecticut Reserve hold their 
title under the state of Connecticut, they cannot submit to the 
government established by the United States in the North- 
west Territory without endangering their titles, and the ju- 
risdiction of Connecticut could not be extended over them 
without much inconvenience." The report was accompanied 
by a bill for the purpose of vesting jurisdiction in the United 
States and establishing the validity of the Connecticut title 
to the soil. This bill passed both houses of congress and, on 
April 28. 1800, President Adams gave it his approval The 
Connecticut general assembly promptly complied with the 
provisions of the quieting act. In July of the same year, 
Governor St. Clair issued a proclamation constituting Trum- 
bull County, which was to include the Western Reserve. At 
that time, the governor of Connecticut was Jonathan Trum- 
bull, a son of the original "Brother Jonathan." The first 
court sat at Warren, on the last Monday of August, 1800. at 
which time the county was organized. On the second Tues- 



8 CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL. 

day of October, the forty-two electors chose a representative 
in the territorial legislature. Civil government was estab- 
lished on the Western Reserve. 

In this year, Daniel and Gilman Bryant began to operate a 
still at the foot of Superior street and did much to facilitate 
trade with the red skins. This was Cleveland's second manu- 
facturing enterprise, a brick-yard constituting the first. In 1 802 
(April 5), the inhabitantsof Cleveland Township organized their 
government by choosing Rudolphus Edwards as chairman ; Na- 
thaniel Doan as clerk; and Amos Spafford, Timothy Doan and 
William W. Williams as trustees. The township jurisdiction 
then extended over a large territory, much of which was subse- 
quently cutoff for the organization of new townships. In the 
same year, congress passed an enabling act for the formation of 
a state constitution and the admission of Ohio into the Union. 
In 1804, Trumbull county was made a militia district and the 
Cleveland contingent became the fourth company, Lorenzo 
Carter, captain. In 1805, treaties were signed at Cleveland by 
which the Indian tribes gave up their claims to the lands of 
the Reserve west of the Cuyahoga River ; Cleveland became 
a port of entry and a postoffice was established. On the last 
day of the year, the legislature divided Trumbull and provid- 
ed for the future organization of Cuyahoga county. In 1809, 
Cleveland was chosen as the county seat in preference to 
Newburgh, a rival of no mean pretensions. In fact, the 
geography of those davs described Cleveland as "a thriving 
village on the shore of Lake Erie, six miles from Newburgh,"' 
a description which was sneeringly perpetuated for many 
years by rival cities on the lake shore. To-day, Newburgh is 
the famous " Iron Ward" (27th) of the city of Cleveland. In 
1810, came the first practicing lawyer, Alfred Kelley, Esq. In 

1812, the dull routine of pioneer life was broken by the war 
and Hull's surrender at Detroit. There were alarms, terror 
and confusion. In their dread of the British and their savage 
allies, many families abandoned their homes and returned to 
the older states, more remote from the international line. 
They who remained became accustomed to the din of war-like 
preparation. Stockades were erected, the militia was re- 
organized and companies formed for the general defence. In 

1813, the first court house was built, and Perry won his 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL. 



splendid victory on Lake Erie. On December 23, 1814, the 
general assembly passed " An act to incorporate the village of 
Cleveland in the county of Cuyahoga." The act was to take 
effect on the first Monday of the following June. On that day, 
+ he twelve electors of the village met and unanimously 
elected Alfred Kelley president, and chose a recorder, treas- 
urer, marshal, two assessors and three trustees. In October, 
the council laid out and established Bank, Seneca and Wood 
streets from Superior to the lake, and extended St. Clair 
street to the river. 

When peace returned, immigration began anew. At this 
time, the business and residence parts of the village were 
confined to Water street, and Superior street between the 
river and the public square; the total population did not much 
exceed a hundred persons. In 1816, twenty-five citizens sub- 
scribed a total of $198 for the building of a school-house and, 
in January, 1817, the village trustees enacted that they be 
reimbursed with orders on the treasurer payable in three 
years, and that the corporation should be its sole proprietor. 
The house was built that year where the Kennnrd House now 
stands. Whenever the services of a minister could be ob- 
tained, it served as church and, in 1820, an Ashtabula county- 
minister was engaged to preach regularly every other Sunday. 
In 1817, the first permanent settlement was made at Brooklyn, 
afterwards known as Ohio City, and now as the "West Side."' 

On the last day of July, 1818, "The Cleveland Gazette and 
Commercial Register," made its first appearance. The 
"Herald" was begun in October, 1819, and still survives as a 
somewhat shadowy part of the "Leader" At this time, the 
population of the village was less than four hundred. 

The success of the Erie Canal had stimulated the people 
of Ohio to emulation and, in 1825 (February 24), the legisla- 
ture passed an act for the building of a canal from Lake 
Erie to the Ohio River. Chiefly through the efforts of Alfred 
Kelley, the canal commissioners chose the route that led 
through the Cuyahoga valley to Cleveland. The father of the 
Erie Canal, New York's great governor, DeWitt Clinton, 
broke the ground and, on July 4, 1827, the canal was opened 
from Cleveland to Akron with a grand and enthusiastic cele 
bration; five years later, it was completed to the Ohio River. 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL. 



A heavy bar at the mouth of the river impeded navigation. 
An act of congress (March 3, 1825) appropriated $5,000. The 
entire amount was spent in the building of a pier into the 
lake from the east shore of the river. The channel still re- 
mained precarious or impassable. Then congress was induced 
to make a larger appropriation and the government sent a 
member of the United States engineer corps, under whose 
direction a second pier was built, parallel to the first and 
still further east. Then the channel was changed and the 
river made to flow between the parallel piers. The work 
proved successful and resulted in giving Cleveland, at last, a 
good harbor. In 1828, there were at least ten feet of water 
in the channel. The canal and the harbor improvements 
gave the village a new impetus and, from that time, there 
was a marked growth. In 1825, the population was about 
500; by 1835, it had increased ten-fold. 

The first fire engine was bought in 1829 and the first light- 
house built in 1830. The United States census of this year 
showed a population of 1,075. 

The settlements on both sides of the river shared in the 
general prosperity, and there was much discussion of a plan 
to unite them under a single city charter. But the bitter 
rivalry between them prevented this and, in March, 1836, 
each obtained its charter, the Village of Cleveland becoming 
the City of Cleveland, and the Village of Brooklyn becoming 
Ohio City. The former had a population of about 6,000 and 
the latter about a third as many. The population of the 
county outside of the city was about 15,000, The first elec- 
tion under the charter was held April 15, 1836, John W. 
Willey being chosen mayor. An alderman and two council- 
men were chosen from each of the three wards. Log houses 
still lingered, frame structures were common and brick 
buildings began to break the wooden monotony. Euclid 
street had begun its career of splendor and had one of these 
brick dwellings, near the site now occupied by the Union Club. 
But the magnificent succession of lawn and mansion on "the 
avenue" was still a dream ; in the prosaic waking moments 
of even the most enthusiastic, it was still unbroken forest in 
which deer and bear were caught, as they are unto this day. 
In 1836, Messrs. John W. Willey and James S. Clark bought 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL- 



what we call the flats, offered town lots at immoderately high 
prices and built a bridge across the river from the foot of 
Columbus street. At this time, Cleveland handled nearly a 
quarter of the products of the state and every one was san- 
guine of unbounded prosperity for the city and of individual 
opulence. 

The " Cleveland and Newburgh railroad" had been pro- 
jected, and a tramway of hewed timbers built from the quar- 
ries east of the city to the city terminus near the site of the 
Forest City House. George Stevenson's little locomotive, 
the " Rocket," had made a successful trial trip from Manches- 
ter to Liverpool in 1829, and, in 1830, the United States had a 
railway mileage of 23 miles. Six years later, when the wildest 
speculation was rife and the sparsely settled southern shore 
of Lake Erie was platted into city lots at every indentation 
of the coast, and one speculator, just a little wilder than the 
others, predicted a continuous city from the Niagara to the 
Cuyahoga, came an unique enterprise, a railway structure to 
be built on stilts, the famous Ohio railroad of unpropitious 
memory. The company proposed to build a railway on a 
double line of piles or posts, with ties and stringers and a 
light strap-iron rail, a flimsy wooden structure estimated to 
cost $16,000 per mile. The liberal charter gave the company 
banking privileges which were used with enterprising free- 
dom. The three or four hundred thousand dollars of currency 
issued could never truthfully say or sing, 4< I know that my 
redeemer lives." In spite of the aid rendered by the Ohio 
Plunder Law of 1837, the road was never built. A financial 
panic came in 1837, and the " Plunder Law " was repealed 
in 1840 ; . the collapse of the Ohio railroad was quick and 
complete. 

In 1836, charters were also granted to the Cleveland, Co- 
lumbus and Cincinnati and to the Cleveland, Warren and 
Pittsburg railroads, but the panic laid them on the shelf until 
the more prosperous years of the next decade. In 1845, the 
Ohio legislature renewed the charter of the Cleveland, 
Columbus and Cincinnati road and, early in 185:, a train 
gaily decked with flags and streamers bore the legislative and 
executive officials of the Buckeye State from Columbus to 
Cleveland. 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL- 



"And the people did laugh to see 
Their rulers riding on a rail." 

In 1845, the charter of the Cleveland, Warren and Pitts- 
burg road was revived and, before the end of the year, seven- 
ty-five miles of it had been built. In the following year, a 
charter was issued for the Junction railroad and another for 
the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland. These companies were 
consolidated in 1853 as the Cleveland and Toledo. The 
Cleveland and Erie was opened late in 1852 ; the Cleveland and 
Mahoning was chartered in 1851 and built as far as 
Youngstown by 1857. Thus was made possible a rapidity of 
development that otherwise could not have been attained. 
Since the time when railway traffic was added to that of the 
lake, the growth of Cleveland has been a phenomenon in the 
economic history of the country. 

The bridge which had been built at Columbus street had 
the effect of diverting traffic from the west side settlement 
to Cleveland and, in 1837, the marshal of Ohio City was 
directed to abate it as a nuisance. But the Clevelanders 
were determined that it should remain, and hence arose the 
famous Battle of the Bridge, with all its oft-sung mock 
heroics. In this year (1837), the first school board was 
appointed with supervisory functions, and the old Academy 
building on St. Clair street rented for a public school. 
Other houses were built and, in 1840, there were 900 pupils 
and 16 instructors. On July 13, the first free high school 
in Ohio was begun in the basement of the old Prospect 
church. It was "a high school for boys." with the still sur- 
viving Andrew Freese as principal. The Young Men's Liter- 
ary Association was organized in 1845 and incorporated under 
the name of the Cleveland Library Association in 1848. From 
this organization has been evolved the Case Library of today. 

In 1845, three Cleveland banks were incorporated, the 
" Commercial " (with a capital stock of $150,000); the 
"Merchants" ($100,000); and the "City Bank of Cleve- 
land" ($150,000.) In the summer of 1847, the Lake Erie 
Telegraph Company was authorized to extend its line 
through the city and the first telegram was received. 
The Cleveland Gas Light and Coke Company was char- 
tered in 1S46 and supplied gas for street illumination three 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL- 13 

years later. In 1849, a committee was appointed by the 
city council to investigate the project for water works, and 
their report, recomme tiding an outlay of $400,000 for that 
purpose, was submitted in 1853. The people endorsed the prop- 
osition at the spring election by a vote of more than two to one. 
At a large meeting of merchants, held at the Weddell House, 
July 7, 1848, the Board of Trade was organized. In 1S50, 
Cleveland had a population of 17,034, and Ohio City, one 
°f 3.95°- I n April, 1853, the voters of the two cities spoke, 
with large majorities, in favor of the union of the two 
municipal corporations and, in consequence thereof, Ohio 
City became the "West Side " of Cleveland. In accordance 
with the marriage contract, bridges were soon built at Main, 
Centre and Seneca streets. At that time, Superior street was 
paved from the river to Water street, whence "a slushing, 
twisted and rotten plank road " extended to the public square. 
Every other street in the city was a mud road of depth un- 
fathomable in the rainy season. 

In October, 1854, there were two disastrous conflagrations, 
involving an estimated loss of $215,000, and soon after came 
the failure of the Canal Bank and the first financial mob. 
The door of the bank was broken in "and crowbars were 
about to be used upon the door of the vault when some com- 
promise was effected." In 1856 (Dec. 7), commissioners 
reported in favor of the junction of Pittsburg (now Broad- 
way) and Bolivar streets as the site for a market, and there 
the Central Market was begun in the following spring. The 
number of vessels owned in Cleveland in 1830 was 15; in 
1840. it was 66. In 1855, the completion of the Sault Ste. 
Marie canal opened up the waters of Lake Superior for a 
thousand miles to the north-west and gave a new impetus to 
Cleveland ship-building. Bituminous coal was first brought 
to Cleveland and hawked about the streets in 1828, "but the 
housewives objected to it on account of its blackness, pre- 
ferring wood." In 1853, tne nrst i ron ore landed at Cleveland 
was shipped in half a dozen barrels. 

"Great oaks from little acorns grow." 

In 1856, the city expended $185,744, and had a funded debt 
of $636,800. The population was estimated at 6 d, 000. The 



14 CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHEEE- 

financial panic of 1857 cast every branch of business into 
stagnation. The Perry monument was unveiled, with im- 
posing ceremonies, on September 10, i860, the first of monu- 
mental art undertaken by the citizens of Cleveland. The 
statue then stood at the centre of the public square; it was 
removed to the south-east section of the square in the spring 
of 1879 an d taken down in December, 1892, to make room for 
the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' Monument. The East Cleve- 
land Street Railroad Company was organized October 6, 1S60, 
a novelty that was looked upon as a harmless experiment, 
and the first of its kind in Ohio. 

Then came war's wild alarm, the firing on Sumter, Lin- 
coln's call for men and the departure of the " Grays " ( April 
18, 1861.) In 1862, the Cleveland sinking fund was estab- 
lished and commissioners thereof appointed by the legis- 
lature. In twenty years, the fund was increased from 
$361,377 to $2,700,000, at an expense of $600, an unsurpassed 
record of financial ability and fidelity. In the same year 
(1862), the old volunteer fire department gave way for a 
paid department and, in 1864, the fire telegraph system 
was established. In this period of fraternal strife were 
developed those great industries w 7 hich transformed Cleve- 
land from a commercial to a manufacturing city. The 
extraordinary demands of the government showered pros- 
perity upon those who brought coal, iron, lumber and petro- 
leum within the city's limits, there to shape them for the 
market, and gave a new direction to the activities of her en- 
ergetic citizens. In this period the population increased 
50 per cent., the lake traffic more than doubled, and the city 
began to take on a metropolitan air. 

In 1867, parts of Newburgh and Brooklyn townships were 
annexed to the city, the People's Gas Light Company was in- 
corporated and the blockade of Superior and Ontario streets, 
made by the fencing in of the public square in 1857, was 
broken by the courts. In 1868, a through line from 
Cleveland to Indianapolis was secured by railway con- 
solidation, the first iron steamer was launched, and the Cleve- 
land Rolling Mill Company began the production of Bessemer 
steel. In 1869, the free public library was opened in 
the third story of the building at the corner of Superior 



CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL. 15 

and Seneca streets (over Hower & Higbee's store.) the 
Kirtland Society of Natural Science was organized, the 
Law Library and the Lake View Cemetery associations were 
incorporated, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad 
Company was formed by consolidation of existing lines, 
and work was begun on the lake tunnel to secure a better wa- 
ter supply. 

On January 1, 1871, the city workhouse was divorced from 
the infirmary and established at its present location on Wood- 
land avenue. In August, a board of park commissioners was 
created. The public square was improved in 1872, the first 
tax levy for park purposes was made in 1873, an( ^ Lake View 
Park begun in 1874. In 1882, J. H. Wade gave W T ade Park to 
the city, and, on the death of W. J. Gordon in 1892, the mag- 
nificient grounds that bear his name became, by his will, the 
property of the people. In the spring of 1872. the village of 
East Cleveland was annexed, and the city's eastern boundary 
pushed from Wilson avenue more than two miles toward Buf- 
falo. In 1873, Cleveland's early rival, Newburgh, was absorbed 
The historical and disastrous panic of this year seriously ern- 
barassed every business house in Cleveland, forced many to the 
wall and temporarily checked the tendency toward building 
elegant residences and adding in many ways 10 the magnifi- 
cence of the city. In 1875, the lately finished Case Buildings 
on Superior street, was leased for 25 years for a city hall. 
The annual rental is $36,000. The Euclid Avenue Opera 
House (which was burned in 1892) was opened to the public 
in September of this year. In the fall, work was begun on 
the breakwater for the harbor of refuge. 

In the centennial year, the steel flag staff in the public 
square was delivered to the city (July 4), and Dr. Charles F. 
Brush invented the dynamo electric machine which made him 
rich and famous, and gave rise to the Brush Electric Co. On 
December 27, 187S, Cle\ elanders celebrated the completion of 
the great stone viaduct or high level bridge across the Cuya- 
hoga river. The Valley railway was opened to traffic as far as- 
Canton, February 1, 1880. The New Vork, Chicago and St. 
Louis (the " Nickel Plate") and the Connotton Valley (now 
the Cleveland, Canton and Southern) railroads were opened to- 
traffic in 1S82. 



l6 CLEVELAND IN A NUTSHELL- 



For the last decade, important events have crowded thick 
and fast, but fortunately they are so recent as not to need 
rehearsing here. But we may not omit to mention the change 
■of municipal organization wrought by the adoption of the 
so-called "Federal Plan." At the beginning of the present 
decade, Cleveland's government was somewhat closely analo- 
gous to an old house; built originally for a small family, and 
with wings, L's, and lean-to's added as wealth and children 
increased, the whole exhibited a motley style of architecture 
not pleasing to the eye, convenient for daily .use, or economi- 
cal to maintain. Such was our patched and repatched charter 
for a town made to do duty for a great and growing city. 
After much local agitation, the state legislature was induced 
to enact a bill giving the city a new charter, which went into 
effect straightway after the election of April 6, 1891. It 
makes a clear cut distinction between executive and legisla- 
tive functions. An elective mayor is the central figure of the 
executive branch. Appointed by him and confirmed, by the 
municipal legislature, are the six members of his cabinet, 
each of whom is a director in charge of a department, thus: 
law, public works, accounts, police, fire, and charities and 
correction. Each director makes appointments in his de- 
partment absolutely "without the advice and consent of the 
council," but firemen and policemen are under the shelter of 
-civil service reform. The mayor and the directors constitute 
the "Board of Control," one of the most important agents of 
the city. The municipal legislature consists of tweiry 
councilmen, two for each of the ten districts into which 
the forty wards are divided^ Other than the selection of its 
own clerk, sergeant-at-arms\nd page, "the council shall exer- 
cise no power of election or appointment to any office." The 
■city treasurer, the police judge, the prosecuting attorney, 
and the clerk of the police court are elected b^the people. 



